I’ve had a stressful evening, so I thought I would sit down and do a post to relax me. To wit, I figure . . . what?

Why was it stressful? Ah . . . you see, we have neighbors with teenagers. For the second time in two days said teens, probably with some friends, sat outside with some musical instruments and proceeded to purposefully and loudly play very bad music and accompany it with lousy singing. So loud that I could not raise the volume on the TV enough to drown it out.

This occasionally happens in the Summer, and I then close the windows and turn on the AC . . . except I’ve not prepped the AC yet as the evening still get reasonably cool; except this evening, hence why my windows were open.

So, after an hour or so, I decided to go ask them to stop being inconsiderate assholes . . . and met the father in the front of their house. Now, I grant you, I was annoyed. I probably did not come across as all apologetic for daring to ask they be told to keep it down.

He suggested I should ask nicely. I suggested I should not have to ask at all, and that perhaps he had failed as a parent in instilling what in civilized society passes for a sense of boundary and consideration for others.

In retrospect, I think I failed miserably to consider the fact one cannot teach others what one likely does not possess. Also, I failed to consider most of today’s teens and adults seem to possess a high sense of self-entitlement (even more so when they be “good christians”).

I fully expect some juvenile retaliation for my transgression in requesting civility and respect for others. Let’s hope not, but my low opinion of humanity is more often confirmed as not.

Anyway, to relax I thought I would do a quick post about our previous Yellowstone visit, in 2007. Obviously, this blog did not exist in them ancient times. Instead, I used to have a mailing list consisting of people who, for the most part, would regularly ignore my mailings. Essentially, I would send out a write-up of stuff I did, and link a gallery of photos.

Well, heck! . . . I now have over 800 people who regularly ignore what I do on this blog, and those are just most of my subscribers. I figure I would give them a taste of the kind of descriptions I used to do (really, not much different than now; incredibly clever and exceedingly funny) so most could ignore stuff from the past.

This PDF file contains the write-up for Yellowstone_Day-one_Day-two and it contains a link to a Picasa Gallery (2007 was also pre-SmugMug).

Since few people will click on the PDF link, and fewer still will click on the link therein, HERE‘s the direct link to the gallery. One of these days, I will reprocess the photos and add them to SmugMug. But not today.

It’s late, and I need to get some sleep, so I’ll post about Day Three of my 2007 Yellowstone visit tomorrow.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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Note: if you are not reading this blog post at DisperserTracks.com, know that it has been copied without permission, and likely is being used by someone with nefarious intention, like attracting you to a malware-infested website. Could be they also torture small mammals.

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Please, if you are considering bestowing me recognition beyond commenting below, refrain from doing so. I will decline blogger-to-blogger awards. I appreciate the intent behind it, but I prefer a comment thanking me for turning you away from a life of crime, religion, or making you a better person in some other way. That would mean something to me.

It’s a fun idea to entertain, but I don’t have the muscle Al had, nor his political clout (through bribery, blackmail, and extortion).

I remember my first encounter with this parental style . . . it was 1967, and I had been in the US just a year (14 at the time). Some neighbor kids were being jerks to my sister, and I marched to their house and spoke to their parents about it.

I fully expected the kids to get in trouble, but no . . . the parent (mother, in this case) started yelling at me; how dared I come to her house and accuse the fruit of her unwashed loins of misbehaving? All I could think of was that if the situations were reversed, my mother would have apologized for my behavior and then given me a good talking to.

I saw that scenario repeated, the one with kids who are jerks coming from parents who are bigger jerks, over the next 50 years to the present day. Not all, mind you, but enough to make it near the norm. It’s so anymore that I don’t even try. This was a moment of weakness that I should have resisted, but dang it, sometimes it grates on us that we have to accommodate for everyone else.

. . . hence, Wyoming . . . or whatever other place where if I hear my neighbors it will be because their furnace exploded, and even then, I would be more likely to see the smoke rising than hear the actual explosion.

That is fortunate, indeed. Without even going into apartment living, our experience has been thus:

First house: next door neighbors, two kids; they were one of the main reasons I stopped letting my cats out as they used to shoot their bow and arrows at stuff. Notable incidents, having my sliding glass window shot out by the kid of the neighbor behind us (BB gun), and having one of the bushes next to our house set on fire from a stray bottle rocket (July 4th). Side note: we had found a stray cat, and it was the cat that kept pawing at the window that made me look outside and catch the blaze before it got out of hand. The owners of the cat came to claim it the next day.

Second house (in a very affluent neighborhood): One neighbor repeatedly ignored my concerns for the large willow that he did not maintain. I used to pay our tree company to do what maintenance they could on the portion that was over my property. Eventually, said willow lost a huge branch that crashed through my roof, literally, cracking the ceiling above our bed. The other neighbor did not maintain his yard and home, and we actually did maintenance on his property when we put our home for sale. He too had trees that crashed and destroyed our fence. He also used to drive his truck through our yard as he occasionally wanted to park it on his grass. His kid used to wander into our backyard and poke around; a concern to us because we had a (fenced) pool. Those were the major violations to our calm.

Current house: aside the constant braying of dogs, kids riding minibikes, adults riding motorcycles, teens playing loud music (in their cars and outside), parents who should know better speeding down the street, neighbor’s dogs pooping in my yard, the occasional egging (a case of mistaken identity), and general lack of consideration for others, this is not too bad. We had two good neighbors, and one moved away, leaving one good neighbor. I suppose that is all one can ask for these days.

To be sure, in all the places we lived there were some good things too. But it’s the stuff that damages one’s calm and leaves a more prominent mark on one’s memories.

But, enough bitching . . . thanks for the comment about the photo, and for letting me vent.

Sorry you’re having trouble with neighbors….not much can be done, really. Either you have good people who are thoughtful and considerate by nature, or you have people who really don’t care, or are defensive when their bear cubs are asked to quiet down, and all that happens then is it keeps getting worse. Ear plugs and air conditioners are sometimes the only answer. sigh

I absolutely loved #9 in the contest, which is beautiful. Some of the others were lovely, and some were clever and interesting. But that heron was the only picture that has the impact it does have because you did the treatment in black and white. For all I talk about loving color, I think that picture is art, and it’s really stunning.

Sorry your neighbors were a pain in the arse. :-/ Makes life a drag when you can’t be in your own home and enjoy a little peace and quiet. One of the reasons I quit teaching was because often problem students have problem parents and I felt like I wasn’t getting through to/or helping any of them. When you meet the parents you’d quickly figure out why the kids were the way they were. :-(

I love your Yellowstone Day One and Two photos! The moose really tickled me! I’ve never seen one in person and would love to! Thanks for sharing him! (He is a him, right?! :-D Ha!)

Oh, I meant to tell you…several of my nieces and nephews begged me (years ago) to be on Facebook…and I said, “So I need one more place for my family and friends to ignore me?!”
HA! :-P I guess I’m old fashioned and prefer communicating face to face or via phone. But, it seems nowadays people share all manner of important stuff online rather than in person. Oh well. :-P

I love the sketchy B&W of the heron, and Day 1 & 2 of the 2007 vac. It’s fun to relate, as we were there a few years earlier, flying in (and out) of the tiny Jackson Hole airport (from Denver) and staying in West Yellowstone also. As usual an entertaining read! Day 3 and 4 is next! M:-)